- County Collusion
- Crazy Cliff Driving
- Grant Writing Genius
- Catch of the Day
- Last Chance Grade
- Goya Soup Eaters
- Native Sovereignty
- Rip Van WalMart
- Camarillo Brillo
- Swasti-trees
- Sako Writes FCC
- Ban Fracking
A READER WRITES: “It has just been brought to my attention that all those HHSA produced puff pieces that Michael Kisslinger read on KZYX were to enhance with Ortner/HHSA, Kisslinger's wife Anne Molgaard's $98,000 position paid for by MHSA — Mental Health Services Act money for mental health patient treatment services. Thank you so much for the recent Mendocino County Today piece on HHSA. One of my callers said it sounds like collusion between County CEO Carmel, HHSA Director Stacy and Tom Pinizzotto, Ortner’s gofer and co-boss of HHSA — and YES it does. Surely, by some time next week John McCowen will get it that he's been betrayed and deceived by Carmel Angelo. Dan Gjerde gets it, Dan Hamburg will pet his service chihuahua and who knows what Tom and stonefaced Carre will do? PS. The supervisors may be interested to know that no one at County Mental Health has known how to bill for Medical/Medicare for decades, so multi-millions of dollars have been lost that could have been used for mental health patient treatment services.”
WOMAN WHO DROVE KIDS OFF 300' CLIFF LAST OCTOBER IN COURT
We saw an article Friday by Adam Randall of the Ukiah Daily Journal regarding the mother who drove her two children (and family dog) off a cliff near Chadburne Gulch on Highway 1 last October.
MSP went to her Facebook page shortly after the accident and found the woman in question, Athena Doyle, age 35, posted on her page she felt the "Illuminati" were after her and her family.
In fact, this was Ms Doyle's last Facebook post on October 2: "Illuminati is after my family and I. They have been threatening to kill us. I thought by taking down what I said before it would make them happy but they just want to kill my sons and I because of something we had no control of. They started a show about me and it wasn't enough now they are going to kill me and my family (all of them). So please watch out for my brother and work to get them the justice they deserve for killing people who did nothing to them. Thanks."
UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL PIECE
"A trial date has been set in the case of a Humboldt County mother who allegedly drove her car off a northern Mendocino County cliff last year in an apparent attempt to kill herself and two children.
On Friday, Athena Renee Doyle, 35, of McKinleyville, was scheduled to stand trial on two counts of attempted murder May 18 in Mendocino County Superior Court, according to Mendocino District Attorney Spokesman Mike Geniella.
However, a previous psychiatric evaluation determined that Doyle was mentally unfit to stand trial, and a second expert has since been appointed to evaluate her, Geniella said.
'Whether or not she is fit to stand trial is still hanging,' Geniella said, who believed a trial date was set anyway 'to get things moving,' and have a plan in place.
Geniella said in mid-November Doyle’s defense was expected to be not-guilty by reason of insanity, which ended-up being her plea in December, and that Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira was seeking a life commitment for Doyle if she were to be committed to a state mental health facility.
The investigation into the incident began on the afternoon of Oct. 3 after the California Highway Patrol requested assistance from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office in the 33000 block of North Highway 1 in Westport near Fort Bragg.
Investigating MCSO deputies learned that Doyle’s vehicle had traveled off the roadway, and down a 300-foot cliff before coming to rest on the Chadbourn Gulch/Blues Beach.
The MCSO noted the incident wasn’t witnessed, and Doyle’s vehicle had been on the beach for several hours before being located by a passing motorist.
A CHP officer, after reportedly being in contact with Doyle on the scene, believed the mother of two may have intentionally crashed the vehicle, a MCSO report stated.
As a result of the accident, Doyle along with her 4-year-old, and 2-year-old sons, were transported by air to an out-of-county hospital with what the Sheriff’s Office described were significant injuries at the time.
MCSO subsequently handled the investigation which was then turned over to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office. The DA issued a felony arrest warrant for Doyle on suspicion of two counts of attempted murder on Oct. 28.
Doyle was arrested on Oct. 31 by local law enforcement which booked her into the Humboldt County Jail, and then extradited her back to Mendocino County a short time after, MCSO’s report said.
The Mendocino County Child Welfare Services division said Friday it couldn’t comment on the status of Doyle’s two children in regards to the incident since both are protected under state confidentiality codes related to child welfare services information.
The Eureka Times-Standard reported in November of another past incident regarding Doyle and her mental status. In August, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office was summoned for a welfare check after Doyle’s mother reported her as an at-risk person.
After locating Doyle and speaking with her, HCSO deputies determined that she didn’t appear to be a danger to herself or others, and wasn’t taken into custody at that time, according to the Times-Standard’s report."
(Courtesy, Mendocino Sports Plus)
FORT BRAGG'S MARIE JONES BRINGS HOME THE BACON
A Reader Writes: Think I sent this already? But it seems like big news....Marie Jones must be a grant getting genius! But why the big loan to a car dealer? I dont think its been presented in full.
Thanks!
CATCH OF THE DAY, Feb. 21, 2015
JOSEPH ALLEN, Ukiah. Grand theft, under influence of controlled substance.
JOHN BOLTON IV, Willits. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)
DAVID BORUP, Laytonville. Drunk in public, possession of controlled substance, court order violation.
DAVID CHAVEZ, Ukiah. Loitering, possession of drug paraphernalia.
CLINTON DURANT, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.
NICHOLAS HALVORSEN, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)
CHARLES HENSLEY, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)
JOHN HOLLOWAY, Fort Bragg. Under influence of controlled substance, probation revocation.
ALEXANDER JOHNSON, Fort Bragg. Possession of meth for sale, sale of meth, sale-transport-furnish organic drug.
JEFFREY KOSTICK, Fort Bragg. Conspiracy, protective order violation, provation revocation.
ANTONIO MACIAS, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.
SABRINA MENDOZA, Willits. DUI.
HUGO MUNIZ, Ukiah. DUI, probation revocation.
MICHAEL PELKEY, Vandalism, probation revocation.
AUDREY ROLLINS, Port Charlette, Florida/Ukiah. Pot possession for sale.
MATTHEW THOMPSON, Shelter Cove/Garberville. Domestic assault.
ERIN YOUNG, Laytonville. Petty theft, probation revocation.
UNSTABLE ‘LAST CHANCE GRADE’ THREATENS CRESCENT CITY, HUMBOLDT ECONOMIES, SAYS CALTRANS REPORT
by Ryan Burns
A slide-prone stretch of Hwy. 101 known as “Last Chance Grade” just south of Crescent City, is a weak link in a chain of transportation and commerce, a link that, should it snap in the form of a major landslide, would wreak havoc on the economy of the entire region, including Humboldt County, according to a new report by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
Officials in Del Norte County have been aware of this vulnerability for years, and they’ve made the rounds to neighboring jurisdictions (including the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors) seeking support for a project to fix the problem. Such a project — likely in the form of a bypass — would be very expensive: somewhere between $250 million and more than $1 billion, by Caltrans estimates. But the agency’s latest report suggests that inaction could prove even more costly.
A slide that took out both lanes of the highway would necessitate the mother of all detours — a 320-mile, seven-hour re-route to the I-5 corridor via State Route 299 and U.S. Route 199. “Such a detour would cost the traveling public (trucking industry and passenger vehicles) an estimated $1,340,000 per day,” Caltrans reports. That’s right: more than one and a third million dollars every day.
On top of that, the closure would result in a loss of 3,000 to 4,000 jobs and cost the region more than $100 million in lost wages annually, with construction of a new route likely to take between two and three years to complete, the report says.
who’s driven to or from Crescent City likely remembers this stretch of roadway. It’s the area flanked by retaining walls on the eastern upslope, with rumbling asphalt in the middle and, on the western downslope, frequent slide-outs like this one:
In 2000, the California Geological Survey mapped more than 200 active slides along Last Chance Grade, and Caltrans says slides are likely to get more frequent over time. Since 1997, project and repair costs along that stretch have added up to nearly $30 million.
Humboldt County would be hurt by a slide, too (obviously). “A failure of U.S. 101 at Last Chance Grade would disrupt the flow of goods, such as fuel, dairy products and timber, to Crescent City and the northern half of Del Norte County from Humboldt County, the report notes. Plus, many people in and around Crescent City come to Humboldt for medical services, tourism and more.
To avoid this doomsday scenario, Caltrans has been studying possible realignment routes slightly inland from the eroding slopes of Last Chance Grade. (See a PowerPoint presentation in pdf form here.) Caltrans is currently working on an engineered feasibility study with a variety of other agencies, including the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the National Park Service, the Yurok Tribe, the Smith River Rancheria, and the Elk River Rancheria.
MARK DOWIE WRITES:
Haida Gwaii Lesson
Editor,
A couple of weeks ago I sent you a note about a book I was pitching through a crowdfunded publishing startup called Inkshares. Some of the people I emailed it to didn’t get the message, and I was wondering if you might be one of them. If not, and this is the second time you’ve seen this pitch, apologies.
Either way, of course I would be interested to hear what you think of a strategic playbook for native sovereignty based on the triumphant experience of a remote Canadian tribe. And if you really like the idea, and could support it or pass word about it on to others, I would eternally grateful.
Here, hopefully not "again," is the link: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/the-haida-gwaii-lesson-2?referral_code=e9618914
Hope all’s well with you,
Mark Dowie, Point Reyes Station
RIP VAN WALMART
CAMARILLO BRILLO
She had that
Camarillo brillo
Flamin' out along her head,
I mean her Mendocino bean-o
By where some bugs had made it red
She ruled the Toads
of the Short Forest
And every newt in Idaho
And every cricket who had chorused
By the bush in Buffalo
She said she was
A Magic Mama
And she could throw a mean Tarot
And carried on without a comma
That she was someone I should know
She had a snake for a pet
And an amulet
And she was breeding a dwarf
But she wasn't done yet
She had gray-green skin
A doll with a pin
I told her she was awright
But I couldn't come in
(I couldn't come in right then…)
And so she wandered
Through the door-way
Just like a shadow from the tomb
She said her stereo was four-way
An' I'd just love it in her room
Well, I was born
To have adventure
So I just followed up the steps
Right past her fuming incense stencher
To where she hung her castanets
She stripped away
Her rancid poncho
An' laid out naked by the door
We did it till we were un-concho
An' it was useless any more
She had a snake for a pet
And an amulet
And she was breeding a dwarf
But she wasn't done yet
She had gray-green skin
A doll with a pin
I told her she was awright
But I couldn't come in
(actually, I was very busy then)
And so she wandered
Through the door-way
Just like a shadow from the tomb
She said her stereo was four-way
An' I'd just love it in her room
Well, I was born
To have adventure
So I just followed up the steps
Right past her fuming incense stencher
To where she hung her castanets
She said she was
A Magic Mama
And she could throw a mean Tarot
And carried on without a comma
That she was someone I should know
(Is that a real poncho … I mean
Is that a Mexican poncho
or is that a Sears poncho?
Hmmm … no foolin' …)
—Frank Zappa
OPEN LETTER TO THE FCC
To the Editor:
In The Ukiah Daily Journal on Sunday, February 15, I was the subject of an ad hominem, personal attack by former KZYX Board President, Bob Page. Yesterday, I was the subject of an ad hominem, personal attack, on the air, by KZYX General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate.
Following yesterday's on-air incident, I sent the following letter to the FCC.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
* * *
February 20, 2015
Peter H. Doyle
Chief, Audio Division
Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In Reply Refer to:
Facility ID No. 41157
File No. BRED-20130724AAG
Dear Mr. Doyle:
Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (MCPB) holds two FCC licenses, KZYX and KZYZ, and it is currently seeking renewal of the same. The FCC has held up the station’s license renewal for almost a year due to the fact that five members of the public submitted objections to the renewal.
I am one of the five people who wrote to the FCC serving as a member of the Board of Directors of MCPB and elected by the majority of MCPB's 2,300 members for the term 2013-2016.
I was appointed by the Board to serve as Board Treasurer for 2014. I also hosted a popular public affairs show, "All About Money", from 2008 until June of this year, when I was suspended for filing the FCC complaint.
As host and producer of the show, I was a finalist last year at the Norman Mailer Society for a fellowship, and I am currently under consideration in the final round for another major fellowship. The basis of my application includes archives of my program and the recommendations of several past guests on my show, who, incidentally, have included two former FCC commissioners.
I have not been permitted to appeal my suspension by MCPB management, against whom I filed my FCC complaint, by an objective, third-party who is external to MCPB. Therefore, I shall appeal my suspension once there is a change in management at MCPB and no such obvious conflict of interest exists.
At this time, I am writing to complain of an abuse of airwaves that occurred today, Friday, February 20, 2015, by MCPB host, Gordon Black, an on-air volunteer, Ana Lucas, and MCPB General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate.
Today, just after 11 a.m., during the "World of Music" program, Mr. Black and Ms. Lucas broke into programming to pitch for listeners to pledge to KZYX. The station is in the middle of its winter fund drive with a goal of $70,000. It was announced that the station had raised about $25,000 by Friday, February 20th, 11 a.m. This is four days into a six-day fundraising drive.
Ms. Lucas began to read comments by donors who had just pledged. Ms. Lucas stated: " A listener from Ukiah said she was put over the top by Sakowicz's recent newspaper comments and that she decided to pledge." Mr. Black chimed in that he had "tussled on the op-ed pages with Mr. Sakowicz recently, and that a letter was printed in response to Mr. Black's letter in the Ukiah Daily Journal from Mr. Sakowicz, but that Mr. Black hadn't read it, and couldn't find it."
Shortly after this exchange, General Manager and Executive Director, John Coate, entered the studio, sat down in front of a microphone, and began to talk. He stated that five (5) individuals had written to the FCC asking that the station's license not be renewed. Mr. Coate said the five individuals made "erroneous statements" in their complaints to the FCC. He further stated: "The station had proved several of these statements as being untrue." He continued and said, "unfortunately, $13,500 had been spent on legal fees thus far to rebut these written comments to the FCC." Mr. Coate concluded by saying: "Our lawyers in Washington DC are doing a good job, but that the money could have been used, say, for equipment."
I am writing at this time to add to my original complaint. Today, Mr. Black and Mr. Coate, and Ms. Lucas, have abused their on-air positions at KZYX and KZYZ. Specifically, they have used the airwaves to do the following: to publicly discuss matters currently pending before the FCC; engage in a personal attack on me, a current Board Member and on-air programmer; engage in a personal attack on all five members of the public who were within their right to offer written objections to the renewal of the station's licenses per the FCC's own policy; and; use the yet-to-be resolved issues before the FCC as a way to blame those of us who made these objections to the FCC for both the failure of the station's current fundraising drive and the failure of the station's broadcasting equipment.
The renewal of the station's licenses is a matter of the greatest public importance, and station management should not be allowed to voice a one-sided opinion on unresolved matters currently under review by the FCC. This is a blatant abuse of power under the color of authority.
Finally, the FCC may be interested in the matter of the regular, frequent, and predictable failure of broadcasting equipment at MCPB.
Here in Mendocino County, the listeners of KYX and KZYZ get a signal that's often down. We're used to it. We get dead air. Or we get an irritating scratchy signal. Why dead air and a scratchy signals? It’s because the station uses Korean War-era equipment. The equipment is old and held together by used replacement parts. Consequently, the signal has been down for as many as three days at a time in late-March, 2014.
Three days of dead air! That's shocking for a public radio station.
Then, there's this year, 2015. Let's look at the problems during just the first two months of 2015. The following are all admissions. I quote from General Manager and Executive Director John Coate's own blog on the KYX website.
On February 12, Coate wrote: " Use 91.5 if you can tune it in. There is an intermittent noise problem with the 90.7 transmitter that we are trying to get repaired."
On February 9, Coate writes on his blog: "The web stream is down during this power outage." He continues, "...generator up and down, fuses blown, UPS systems keeping us on at times, and more than one of them also gave out."
On January 29, Coate writes: "The signal is back on the air. Our Napa-based engineer configured a loaner unit for us." Coate continues, "Our backup STL transmitter unit, that we put in place because the regular ones were misbehaving, has failed completely. We will send our broken STL in for rebuild."
On January 27, Coate writes: "As we have had to report many times over the years, KZYX/KZYX has chronic problems with its set of STL radios. " He continues, " We have tried various adjustments which have helped, but we have not yet succeeded in eliminating an irritating scratchiness in the audio."
On January 12, Coate writes, "STL (Studio Transmitter Link) radios send the signal from Philo up to the main transmitter up on Cold Springs Peak. We tend to have fairly chronic issues with these radios."
To summarize, with respect to technical problems, the above five incidents are only the technical problems to which Mr. Coate admits -- and incidents only in the first two months of 2015. Mr. Coate makes other admissions about dead air in his reports to the MCPB Board of Directors, which are part of the minutes for Board meetings. He can erase his blog posts, but the Board minutes are a permanent record.
How does this involve the FCC?
It seems to me that it is the highest priority for any radio station is keeping the signal up. MCPB has failed miserably in this area, and those failures are well documented. On this basis alone, the FCC should withhold the renewal of the station's licenses until there is a change in management. There are also other issues, i.e. the station's lack of compliance with both the spirit and the letter of affirmative action and equal opportunity laws, the station's inability to staff station premises at all times during business hours, the station's refusal to investigate two incidents of battery on women that occurred on station premises, the station's failure to account for missing monies stipulated to open a studio in Ukiah (the county seat of Mendocino County), and the station's refusal to disclose staff salaries.
Finally, of course, there is today's matter of the abuse of the airwaves to make personal attacks on the five FCC complainants. Three separate persons, including the station’s general manager and executive director, should not blame the complainants on-air, for the failure of equipment. It's a blatant case of abuse of the authority that the FCC has vested in MCPB. Those personal attacks showed poor judgment, and they caused reputational harm to five members of the public.
For the above reasons, I reaffirm my objection to the renewal of MCPB's licenses at this time.
Yours very truly,
John Sakowicz
MCPB Board of Directors (2013-2016), Board Treasurer (2014); host and producer of "All About Money" (2008-present)
CALIFORNIANS AGAINST FRACKING SLAMS HEARING PROCESS, CALLS FOR FRACKING BAN
by Dan Bacher
Two weeks after the largest anti-fracking protest in U.S. history took place in Oakland, a broad coalition of environmental groups renewed their call on Governor Jerry Brown to ban fracking and other unconventional oil drilling in California.
Amid new investigative reports into the state’s mismanagement of oil industry wastewater wells and following a total fracking ban in the state of New York, community members concerned with the health and environmental risks of fracking and other unconventional oil extraction methods are calling on Brown, who constantly tries to portray himself as a "climate leader" and "green governor" at press conferences and other events, to take immediate action to protect Californians.
Residents and representatives from an array of environmental groups voiced concerns at a hearing in Oakland Wednesday evening, according to a news release from Californians Against Fracking. The event is one in a series of hearings hosted by the California state agency responsible for oil development, intended to allow the public to comment on a report on the impacts of fracking on communities’ health and the environment.
The hearing comes after the agency — the Conservation Department’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) — issued fracking regulations at the beginning of this year, before the environmental impact report is complete.
“Governor Brown’s oil regulators have issued rules for fracking before they’ve even finished studying it, putting the cart before the horse and endangering lives," said David Braun in a statement before the hearing on behalf of Californians Against Fracking. "Unsurprisingly, this is the same agency responsible for issuing hundreds of illegal permits for the disposal of oil industry wastewater into multiple protected drinking water aquifers."
"DOGGR’s records also show that fracking flowback fluid, which ends up in wastewater disposal wells, contains high levels of benzene and other harmful chemicals. Clearly, the problems associated with fracking are a five alarm fire, but Jerry Brown and his Department of Conservation are treating it like business as usual. If Jerry Brown is truly serious about protecting the people of California and our communities’ health, air and water, he will immediately halt fracking and order his health department to study the issue. We’re confident his findings will be the same as New York’s: A total ban on fracking," said Braun.
The hearing comes shortly after 8,000 Californians concerned with dangerous oil industry practices rallied in Oakland this month to call on Gov. Brown to ban fracking and transition California to 100 percent renewable energy, according to the group.
Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of about 200 environmental business, health, agriculture, labor, political and environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking and other dangerous extraction techniques in California. Follow @CAagainstFrack on Twitter.
Want to take action? Tell Governor Brown: "You allowed the oil industry to illegally inject fracking wastewater into federally protected aquifers used for drinking water and irrigation during our historic drought. Immediately shut down all illegal oil waste injection wells, then place an emergency moratorium on fracking in California." Go to:http://act.credoaction.com/sign/ca_illegal_fracking_waste?t=3&akid=13146.300166.igThi6
Governor Jerry Brown's support of fracking takes place in the context of his administration's war on fish, water, the environment and the people of California. Brown has constantly gushed about his "green energy" and carbon trading policies at press conferences and photo opportunities while he is rushing the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the twin tunnels.
While the mainstream media and Brown's collaborators continue to greenwash the Governor's neo-liberal carbon trading policies, he has in fact continued and expanded the worst environmental policies of the Schwarzenegger administration, including exporting massive quantities of northern California to corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies and implementing the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create questionable "marine protected areas."
The illegitimacy and corruption of the MLPA Initiative process was evidenced by the alarming fact that Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association who is leading the campaign to expand fracking in California, CHAIRED the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create alleged "marine protected areas" in Southern California. She also served on the task forces to create so-called "marine protected areas" on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the Brown administration, in collaboration with the Obama administration, has presided over the near-extinction of Delta smelt, as well as driving the American River steelhead run to its lowest-ever recorded population level and killing off 95% of the endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon last year. In recent California history, it is hard to find a Governor that has overseen more destruction of California's fish, waterways and environment than Jerry Brown, yet the mainstream media and some corporate "environmental" NGOs continue to falsely portray Brown as a "green" Governor. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/21/is-jerry-brown-running-scared/)
For more information about how Brown and his collaborators are the biggest threats to California's environment, go to:http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/16/meet-the-biggest-threats-to-californias-environment-the-winners-of-the-annual-cold-dead-fish-awards
Nobody I know can read a big block o’ text in italics.
Okay, how’s this?